Getting Started After Getting Fat

Bigger Stronger Leaner
1

I turn 28 this year, and am trying to get back into real shape. It’s on my profile, but I’m at about 265 right now (down from 330 a year ago) and want to start lifting. It’s my birthday next week, and I’m splitting the cost of a cage and weight set with the folks as my birthday gift.

I used to lift pretty hard back in college but it’s been nearly 8 years since I’ve touched a barbell. Starting last year I began watching my diet and doing some basic dumbbell exercises (lunges, straight leg deads, DB shoulder press, curls) and walking to begin getting weight off. It’s certainly helped–75 lbs off so far and at least I can say I have some upper body strength again.

I’m not really sure how to start up really training again. My goal is good strength per pound, and I’d like to get my body weight back under 225–I weighed that at 21, and I still have a pair of the 36" shorts I used to fit in to, to remind my fat self that I was once thin. Previously, I’d done mostly 3 sets of 5-8 reps, focusing on squat, dead, bench and military press, doing either squat or dead, and either bench or military press every workout, along with 3-5 other lifts (curls, rows, shoulder raises, straight legs, pull downs, etc). But I’m not sure if I can just go back into that. In college, I partnered with a sports and exercise science major who needed a guinea pig, and he did pretty well working with me, but I never really understood what it was all based on. I did what he told me to and ate semi-healthy and that was good enough. Now I’m not young anymore, and have a desk job and a kid on the way, and I hate being fat and weak.

2

[quote]paulwhite959 wrote:
I turn 28 this year, and am trying to get back into real shape. It’s on my profile, but I’m at about 265 right now (down from 330 a year ago) and want to start lifting. It’s my birthday next week, and I’m splitting the cost of a cage and weight set with the folks as my birthday gift.

I used to lift pretty hard back in college but it’s been nearly 8 years since I’ve touched a barbell. Starting last year I began watching my diet and doing some basic dumbbell exercises (lunges, straight leg deads, DB shoulder press, curls) and walking to begin getting weight off. It’s certainly helped–75 lbs off so far and at least I can say I have some upper body strength again.

I’m not really sure how to start up really training again. My goal is good strength per pound, and I’d like to get my body weight back under 225–I weighed that at 21, and I still have a pair of the 36" shorts I used to fit in to, to remind my fat self that I was once thin. Previously, I’d done mostly 3 sets of 5-8 reps, focusing on squat, dead, bench and military press, doing either squat or dead, and either bench or military press every workout, along with 3-5 other lifts (curls, rows, shoulder raises, straight legs, pull downs, etc). But I’m not sure if I can just go back into that. In college, I partnered with a sports and exercise science major who needed a guinea pig, and he did pretty well working with me, but I never really understood what it was all based on. I did what he told me to and ate semi-healthy and that was good enough. Now I’m not young anymore, and have a desk job and a kid on the way, and I hate being fat and weak.[/quote]

First, congrats on your weight loss. And for getting back into it.

You sound like you know what exercises are good for you (squats, deads, bench, military), but you need a plan.

What I would suggest is something like 5/3/1. Something simple and effective that is easy to follow. Personally I like the NOV template:

5/3/1 lift
2-3 assistance lifts
hard conditioning

I will caution you that if you haven’t been doing much conditioning lately to take it slow at first and see how your knees, ankles, feet, etc hold up. And your lifts may take a hit initially, but that will come back.

As far as diet, at each meal eat the following:

large portion of meat or eggs
vegetable or piece of fruit
carb source (if your still hungry)

3

As good as a program 5/3/1 is, I would suggest purchasing a copy of starting strength. The program lends itself much better to a beginner as the form of the lifts are gone over in detail.Its also easier to gauge as a program as you can start with an empty bar. 5/3/1 would be a great program after starting strength. As for conditioning you should look up conditioning 101 on this site, good article.

4

I just bought the Starting Strength (By Rippetoe right?) and will read it this week.

As far as diet; I can’t eat an actual meal every 2 hours (work schedule issues) but I can manage a snack at my desk, which is what I’ve been doing–greek yogurt, or eggs, and fruit.

Breakfast is usually 2 eggs or a cup of greek yogurt and one or two pieces of fruit.

morning snack is either an egg or a cup of yogurt and/or a piece of fruit
Lunch is a chicken sandwich on these really thin slices of bread, with green chilis, and a salad, and a piece of fruit (about 1/2 cup of pulled chicken on the sandwich)

Afternoon snack is the same as the morning snack.

Dinner is a chicken breast or a fish filet, salad, one-two servings of a basic veggie. Right now we’re eating more chicken than fish just because my wife’s pregnant.

Usually I’ll have a little snack after our evening walk too–more veggies or a handful of chicken. I’m trying to keep it all under 2100 calories a day for now because I have at least 30-40 lbs I want to lose of pure fat.

One thing I noticed on this website is a lot of talk about box squatting, which I’d never done. I’m guessing you can just build a box right? It seems like a lot of time it’s used more as a way to make sure you go to depth, and doesn’t have to support the weight.

As far as conditioning; I’m hiking again, because I like looking for wildlife. Most of the weekdays, I can’t go more than 2-4 miles (time limits-have to be off the trail by dark), and on weekends I try to get at least one 6 mile hike in in the local canyons. I have an old kettlebell I got at a garage sell, and I’ve been trying to do swings with it and using that for conditioning–I got 4 sets of 20 last week, and about to puke afterwards.

5

[quote]paulwhite959 wrote:
As far as diet; I can’t eat an actual meal every 2 hours (work schedule issues) but I can manage a snack at my desk, which is what I’ve been doing–greek yogurt, or eggs, and fruit.
[/quote]

great, cause if that is not a load of bodybuilder bullshit then i dont know what is. i mean seriously, if we as a species needed to eat every 2 hours while other animals in the wild could go days without food then we would have died out millenia ago. it is my opinion that the idiotic low fat high carb craze has caused this 2 hour eating paranoia as well as causing our nations obesity epidemic.

gets of soap box

thats fine. eat more fatty based meals, cut the carbs (except for post workout), and you will see that 3-4 meals all day will do you just fine.

6

OK. I got starting strength and I’ve read a lot of it. The only concern I really have is that A: I can’t do chin-ups at all and B: I’ve never done a power clean, and I’m kind of leery of starting off with them as a lift, even if there is a good walk through in the book on how to do them.
I know some people cheat on chin ups by standing on a chair and using their legs (just enough to get the reps)–is that actually functional if you have the discipline?

7

There is nothing wrong with using a chair slightly behind and putting your toes on it and pushing a bit or even having someone assist by lifting your feet while you do chins until you lose a little more weight and get back into shape. That’s way better than not doing them at all.

Some people love power cleans, others not so much. I wouldn’t say they are a required lift for your goals. Deadlift, squat, bench, overhead press, and a vertical and horizontal pulling movement are mandatory, everything else is optional.

Congrats on your progress so far, 75 lbs. is an awesome start. I’d also agree that 5-3-1 is a great e-book to read, even if you don’t start the program right now.